{
  "abstract": "Underlying the very notion of choice is the fundamental idea of free-will, which is challenged by decision-neuroscience aiming to explain and predict choices as outcomes of neural processes embedded within an ongoing chain of physical causes. The question of whether any choice is truly a free-choice and born out of free-will has long been a subject of philosophical debate. In this work, we do not take a position on this debate; rather we investigate the subjective experience of free-will, whose existence is more universally accepted. We had healthy participants report the level of their experienced free-will while performing a value-based risky decision-making task during an fMRI session to find the neural and behavioral correlates of this experience. We identified regions in mid-cingulum and middle frontal gyrus showing positive association with self-reported free-will as well as a region in hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus showing a negative association. The requirement to report the experience of free-will was associated at a trend-level with a higher BOLD signal in striatum during decision-making. Behaviorally, we found a positive trend between RT and free-will. While our sample size is small, these results help form hypotheses for further studies with larger cohorts and provide a proof-of-concept for the investigations of neural and behavioral mechanisms of the subjective experience of free-will in decision research.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "NYU Grossman School of Medicine"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "P. Modak"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. W. Brown"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0s9sa21bc66xc.bib",
  "cited_by": 1,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.07.12.738094",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.12.738094v2.full",
  "id": "0s9sa21bc66xc",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.12.738094v2",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Free Will and Agency"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7169522963",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.12.738094v2.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-07-12",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0s9sa21bc66xc.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:22:37Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.07.12.738094",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.12.738094v2"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Neural correlates of the subjective experience of free-will during value-based risky decisions: a pilot study",
  "title_text": "Neural correlates of the subjective experience of free-will during value-based risky decisions: a pilot study",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:22:37Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0s9sa21bc66xc",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}